shock absorbers

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cruiserfreek

cruiserfreek

Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Threads
18
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214
Location
Beirut, Lebanon
a small inquiry:

i have installed gas shock absorbers on my 83 fj40. would a switch to oil shock absorbers provide me with better / less bumpy ride?

i have 33.5 x 12.5 inch tires and a 4" sua lift.
 
cruiserfreek said:
a small inquiry:

i have installed gas shock absorbers on my 83 fj40. would a switch to oil shock absorbers provide me with better / less bumpy ride?

i have 33.5 x 12.5 inch tires and a 4" sua lift.
Click to expand...

there's a lot of factors that contribute to rough ride.

My first guess is that your shackle angle is bad and that they are near vertical instead of angled. A good shackle angle makes for a good ride :)

2. Which leaf springs do you have? Some ride better than others by far. I would put Rancho at the bottom of that list and towards the top I'd go with Alcan, OME. etc.

3. You could have the wrong shocks, ie valved to firmly. If I were you and looking to change, I would go with Bilstein 5100 series shocks. Many good reports on them with leaf sprung cruisers.

4. It's possible your tires are causing issues, check your air pressure. The difference in ride between tires is pretty big. I had some 35's that rode really rough, changed to a different style 37" and it rides very nice and smooth.
 
here's a description of what i got, i did the lift myself, and it's my firs ttime.

i cleaned the original leaf springs i had, and bent them to gain a few extra cm of height, as a result of that, my shackle angle is towards the inside.

for the moment the only thing i can afford is to make the switch between shock absorbers, i just need to know if it can improve the ride at all.
 
cruiserfreek said:
here's a description of what i got, i did the lift myself, and it's my firs ttime.

i cleaned the original leaf springs i had, and bent them to gain a few extra cm of height, as a result of that, my shackle angle is towards the inside.
.
Click to expand...


are you saying your shackles are past straight up and down and leaning opposite of what they should be? Because that will cause a pretty bad ride.


picture stolen from mud, this is a bad shackle angle, probably doesn't ride very good.
attachment.php


good shackle angle:
coolfj40_1972_30952316



If your shackles are like that, you can move your hanger to get a better shackle angle. That is jsut cutting off the old ones and moving it to get a better angle.

The easier and first thing to check it to make sure you didn't OVERTIGHTEN the shackle bolts. If they are too tight, it will ride like crap.
 
actually this is my shackle angle in the rear... in case this is the wrong way to go, is it better to add an extra leaf or just move the shackle hanger position?

all the help is appreciated, thanks.
my-schakles.webp
 
cruiserfreek said:
actually this is my shackle angle in the rear... in case this is the wrong way to go, is it better to add an extra leaf or just move the shackle hanger position?

all the help is appreciated, thanks.
Click to expand...

that is definitely not good. How far did they re-arch those springs? Your shackles should be sloping away like the "good shackle angle" pic I showed.

There are a few dilemmas. They springs will probably settle over time putting your shackle angle closer to normal. So you can see how moving a shackle hanger might be a little troublesome later.

I suppose you could add another shackle hanger in case they really flatten back out, then you could always switch to it???

You could try removing a leaf to get it to break in some more.

post some pics of it.
 
cruiserfreek said:
here's a pic of the shackle angle
Click to expand...

attachment.php


yeah thats definitely the wrong way it should be going. Only thing I can think of is try to put A BUNCH of weigh in the back, 300#' something to see if it gets better.

Otherwise I'd say to move that rear shackle hanger in a few inches. You might have to make a longer shackle to make up for the height difference. But I would just get another set of those and tack them on more inward for a better angle. Don't cut the old ones off just incase you want to switch back.

that will make a HUGE difference.
 
You might want to peruse this thread - https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=145610. I had the same problem, but with a 4" lift that I purchased. I ended up moving the shackle hanger. It really did help the ride. If you think about it, with an inverted shackle, every time you hit a bump, you get double the bounce. I say this, because as your spring flexes, it pushes the shackle towards vertical. This pushes your rig up. So, as you hit a bump, your spring pushes you up instead of absorbing the bump! In other words, you get 2x your normal bounce for a given bump.

Good luck! :cheers:
 
thanks for all the help bout the shackles, i'll be tryin that out as soon as possible...
still i didnt get an answer if switching to oil shock absorbers will usually help too or it's irrelevant?
 
cruiserfreek said:
thanks for all the help bout the shackles, i'll be tryin that out as soon as possible...
still i didnt get an answer if switching to oil shock absorbers will usually help too or it's irrelevant?
Click to expand...


At this point, I wouldn't even spend the money on it til your shackle angle gets right. Once thats right, then you can change the shocks if it's still too stiff.

Another thought, did you get longer shocks when you put those re-arched springs on? Make sure you get enough length so that they aren't over compressing or over extending.


I would Reccomend Bilstein 5100 series shocks.
 
i was consulting with my friend a mechanic who will help me arrange this issue. when i told him bout the shackle hangers being moved towards the inside, he freaked out and said it couldn't or even shouldn't be done. he said he'd shorten each leaf that comes after the top one a little bit more to gain more flex... you think it will help? i'll post close up pictures of the suspension soon, coz i really need to make a decision on what to do.
 
cruiserfreek said:
i was consulting with my friend a mechanic who will help me arrange this issue. when i told him bout the shackle hangers being moved towards the inside, he freaked out and said it couldn't or even shouldn't be done. he said he'd shorten each leaf that comes after the top one a little bit more to gain more flex... you think it will help? i'll post close up pictures of the suspension soon, coz i really need to make a decision on what to do.
Click to expand...

Moving the shackle hangers is done ALL the time. Whether they are just trying to improve the angle of an arched spring, or adding a much longer spring pack. It's really not that big of a deal.

I guess by shortening the spring, he is talking about de-arching them? You can try that but then you'll lose some height. But that will also probably gain some flex as the spring won't be arched so bad.
 
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